After some time where we weren’t able to write here due to some technical stuff on the site here, we’re back with a short write up on the FDA’s revisions to the nutrition labels.

Those nutrition labels on the back of food packages may soon become easier to read and understand. The Food and Drug Administration says knowledge about nutrition has evolve over the last 20 years, and the labels need to reflect that.

As the agency considers revisions, nutritionists and other health experts have their own wish list of desired changes.

The number of calories should be more prominent, they say, and the amount of sugar and percentage of whole wheat in the food should be included. They also want more clarity on how serving sizes are defined.

“There’s a feeling that nutrition labels haven’t been as effective as they should be,” says Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “When you look at the label, there are roughly two dozen numbers of substances that people aren’t intuitively familiar with.”

For example, he says, most of the nutrients are listed in grams, the metric system’s basic unit of mass. Jacobson says people don’t really understand what a gram is.

Michael Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, says 20 years ago “there was a big focus on fat, and fat undifferentiated.” Since then, healthy providers have focused more on calories and warned people away from saturated and trans fats more than all fats. Trans fats were separated out on the label in 2006.

The nutrition facts label “is now 20 years old, the food environment has changed and our dietary guidance has changed,” says Taylor

If you remember not long ago California was trying to pass “Prop 37” which would have called for mandatory labeling of GMO’s in foods. The bill was defeated due in large part to the huge amounts of money spent by companies like Monsanto & Du Pont etc.

What do you think? Are these changes helpful to you? What would you like to see changed or added to the labels? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Lynne is a Certified Nutrition Consultant and Therapeutic Massage and Ethics Educator with extensive study in preventative nutrition and physiology. For over 35 years, Lynne has helped thousands of people through consulting, seminars and writing.

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